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New blog features coming

People may (or may not!) realise that every registered member automatically gets a blog (weblog, or personal online diary site). Yuu can get more information here, or see the main blog page here -- the latter lists the latest posts and comments. Your link to your own blog is at the bottom of your User CP menu, or it also links directly from your profile and is there on all your own posts to the board.

There's an announcement on the vBulletin site of some new features coming soon in a blog software update so am just noting that post below as an FYI. In the meantime be sure to check out the blog feature here and set up your own if you'd like, and also don;t forget you all have personal photo albums too!

Since its initial release, the vBulletin Blog add-on product has proved itself to be a popular addition to the vBulletin software suite. It has been well received and sold in good numbers.

Of course, no software is perfect, and we appreciate the feedback we have received from our customers regarding existing features and those that the product would benefit from having.

Therefore, we are pleased to announce that a significant update to the vBulletin Blog is in development, which will introduce new features and implement several popular suggestions for improvements to existing functionality.

There has been no shortage of feature suggestions and feature change requests made in the blog suggestion forum. Careful attention to all of these was paid, with consideration given to them all. This update is slated to be available in the near future, so the kitchen sink is not in the feature list, but what is on the list is sure to please and satisfy everyone while at the same time allowing a release within a reasonable timeframe.

Here is a short list of some of the new features in the vBulletin Blog update.

Tags
Is a blog really a blog if it doesn't have tags? We really wanted to get tag support into Blog 1.0 but we just ran out of time. Well we have tags now that feature a cloud at the top level (all blogs) and at the level of each blog.

Featured Entries
Customers asked for more capability out of the Featured Entry feature. Now you will be able to select multiple entries from an increased set of criteria.

Blog Roll
Your users will now be able to create their own custom blocks to appear in their blog sidebar. They will even be able to rearrange the order of their custom blocks and the pre-existing blocks.

Categories
As an admin, you can now create categories that are accessible to all users or can be limited to specific usergroups.

Blog Customization
One of the most requested features must be the ability for users to personalize their blog. As users can now do with their profiles in 3.7, these style customizations will now be applicable to their blog too.

Further Use of vBulletin 3.7 Features
vBulletin 3.7 introduced several new features that are applicable to the blog.
The lightbox is now used in the blog.
Social Bookmarking links have been implemented for each entry.
The old vBulletin standbys of quick editing and quick loading deleted items have been implemented as well.
Of course, this is not a complete feature list - we wouldn't want to spoil the surprise before you unwrap the shiny package.

Ok so I started a blog. My topic came up as uncategorised. How do I give it a category? Is this something I should have done at the same time as writing the entry or is there some way to add it afterwards? Thanks Tanya

You need to create some categories first. You will see on the left of your blog the option to go to your blog control panel. Once there, on the left you have a menu where you can click into blog categories and create some.